Posted
by
kdawson
on Monday July 12, 2010 @05:50PM
from the waiting-for-four-dot-one dept.

jbezorg was one among many readers to send word that Consumer Reports has concluded that they cannot recommend the iPhone 4. (They still enthusiastically recommend the 3G S.) "It's official. Consumer Reports' engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side — an easy thing, especially for lefties — the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4. ... Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4's signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that 'mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.'" The comments on the article don't display any of the vitriol the Apple faithful have been known to unleash upon anyone daring to question the Cupertino way. Perhaps they are moderated.

Well the maximum setting for the Space Shuttle Main Engines is 109% (104% is the max on most launches). That is because they work better than designed and it was easier to set the "knob" to 109% than rewrite the software.

It didn't have anything to do with software, it had to do with testing data, operational data and documentation.

"Specifying power levels over 100% may seem confusing, but there is a logic behind it. The 100% level does not mean the maximum physical power level attainable. Rather it is a specification, decided on early during SSME development, for the "normal" rated power level. Later studies indicated the engine could operate safely at levels above 100%, which is now the norm. Maintaining the original relationship of power level to physical thrust helps reduce confusion. It creates an unvarying fixed relationship, so that test data, or operational data from past or future missions can be easily compared. If each time the power level was increased, that value was made 100%, then all previous data and documentation would either require changing, or cross-checking against what physical thrust corresponded to 100% power level on that date."

104.5% is as high as they like to go, 106% and 109% is just for aborts.

Apple engineers found that if you lick the antenna and hold it against a radio tower you get a full four bars. Unfortunately the Apple marketing department has yet to figure out how to spin this fix into a trendy commercial.

Apple really dropped the ball this time. All they had to do was say 'oops, our bad, we messed up but here is a free case' and the problem would have been effectively solved, and they would have saved face.

Such a cheap solution to a potential marketing disaster.. I just don't understand it. ( and ill be keeping my 3Gs and not upgrading, but that is beacuse i don't like cases... Perhaps the model 4Gs.. )

You're thinking that Apple is a small company that cares about customer experience. The truth is that Apple is a megacorporation that cares about the bottom line a lot more than any individual or small group of potential users. Only that enough of their current users will pony up money for the next shiny iProduct. And if telling you that you're holding it wrong will not jeopardize that future sale, then suck it up and live with it - you're not getting a free case.

Giving the cases away free would be openly admitting fault and invites all kinds of problems in PR, competition, and legally.

Legally: There are already lawsuits in progress against Apple about this and other issues with the iPhone 4. Admitting guilt like this seems to me (not a lawyer) would be a huge smoking gun for all those lawsuits and almost assuredly far more. It could be bad enough to force a full recall and ban on selling new phones until fixed...and it can't be fixed. It could take Apple completely out of the market for an entire generation of phones (really, who's going to buy a 3Gs at this point?).

Competition: Two major selling points of the iPhone 4 are the slim size and design, both of which even the minimal bumper "case" harms greatly.

PR - Apple is infallible; Keeping their fanboi base truly fanatical is strongly tied to this image. Without rabid fanbois Apple is just another tech company...and frankly not a very good one. If Apple phones have to compete against Android phones without the artificial perception boost of Apple's company image, people may realize the truth...that Apple is actually playing catch up now technologically. The last thing Apple needs are customers actually honestly evaluating the competition...because the iPhone 4 (minus the antenna problems..) is what Apple should have released last year.

So Apple, with its comparatively small market among both computers and phones, shouldn't be worried about competitors?Nintendo used to in a similar position, with fans who were just as rabid, right before the Playstation came out.

They also have something like 70% of the mp3 player market and I wouldn't call 25% of the smartphone market (40 million phones) small either. Apple is just another corporation. They calculated that fixing this costs them more than ignoring it, not to mention the giant face-palm they'd have to do in front of their adoring fans. Jobs will continue to ignore it and the next revision will have a piece of tape on there or somesuch. Never buy a rev 1 Apple product.

On the basis of a quick Google, it's something like 25% of the US smartphone market (which is still dominated by Blackberry). Maybe 15% of global smartphone OS share (which is mostly Symbian). Maybe 2% of the global cellphone market (which is mostly Nokia and Samsung).

I can't tell what you're referring to but if you are talking about the faulty Wiimote wrist-straps that they replaced for everybody shortly after launch, those weren't optional accessories that you had to pay extra for.

The iPhone rubber bands are where all the money is for Apple's partners, because the iPhone nets the retailers something like $1 per unit sold, but the ridiculously-overpriced rubber bands probably net them $29 each. They sell the phones for the privilege of attracting customers with a prize

I can't tell what you're referring to but if you are talking about the faulty Wiimote wrist-straps that they replaced for everybody shortly after launch, those weren't optional accessories that you had to pay extra for.

I'd say an antenna that doesn't short out by holding the phone a pretty non-optional accessory that I have to pay extra for...

We're talking about why Apple doesn't and give away free Bumpers, which seems like the simplest solution for everyone.

Bumpers are obviously dirt cheap to make and they prevent physical contact with the antenna, preventing the problem from occurring, but they also cost a ridiculous $30 retail. Do you ever wonder why every retail store sells every iPod/iPhone case for around $30, instead of the more reasonable $2?

The accessories like the Bumper are where the retailers make the money in selling the iPhones. Th

I believe he's referring to the free "controller jackets" for the Wii remotes - which were part of solving the throwing remote problem. You can get a better grip on the "controller jacket" than slippery plastic when your hands are sweaty. Nintendo offered 1 free per Wii remote purchased before a certain date (remotes after that date had them included).

You just had to put your address (and possibly a Wii ID, don't remember) into their website and they sent them to you - free, no shipping charges or anything. That's what I consider good customer service/relations, and that's why so many people like Nintendo - they produce quality products at a fair price and seem to do their best to solve any issues.

Personally, I laughed when I heard the response from Apple about signal strength being a software issue, it was too little too late even if it was the truth. (and if it was the truth they should have pushed out a patch on the announcement day to fix it)

I can't tell what you're referring to but if you are talking about the faulty Wiimote wrist-straps that they replaced for everybody shortly after launch, those weren't optional accessories that you had to pay extra for.

No, he was talking about the Wii Remote Jacket. It wasn't originally included with the Wii or with the Wii Remote (Nintendo actually never calls it the "Wiimote").

The Wii Remote problem (injury) was not Nintendo's fault (any person can play with the Wii Remote without the jacket if they keep

The iPhone rubber bands are where all the money is for Apple's partners, because the iPhone nets the retailers something like $1 per unit sold, but the ridiculously-overpriced rubber bands probably net them $29 each.

I work for a national cellular retailer in Canada, and you're guess on our margins is way off...
My company makes close to $300 in margin on 3 year voice contract, and considerably more on voice and data, in additional to monthly residuals, as well as load bonuses when we meet our network targets.
Selling the phone, is WAY more important to my companies margin than an accessory is.

The "client's expectations" with Apple is that they never do wrong. That's their brand image, and what their marketing is all about. If they admit failure, sure, they might gain support of some unhappy people that are just in for a ride - or might not, because those people are of the kind who will use whichever phone they consider best for themselves, and will switch to Android/Bada/WP7/whatever else as soon as they believe it to be superior...

But what they lose is the support of those who buy Apple stuff for the Apple logo - because those people motivate their buying decisions by unshakable belief that Apple is always better. If you shatter that illusion by admitting wrong, they'll spit in your face as they walk away. And those are the people who are guaranteed to go back for iPhone 5, iPad 2 etc. You don't alienate your most loyal customer base like that!

All they had to do was say 'oops, our bad, we messed up but here is a free case' and the problem would have been effectively solved, and they would have saved face.

Apple's success is predicated on an image that they can do no wrong, and that if they appear to have done wrong, you are a douchebag for not recognising that they are merely ahead of the curve.They simply cannot acknowledge a blunder of this magnitude, any more than the pope can acknowledge that he is not infallible...

Small nitpick, the pope is only infallible when he speaks ex cathedra (from the chair). When he does this, for all intents and purposes, he speaks with the voice of god and is infallible, the rest of the time, as I understand it, he's just a human being giving his own opinions.

Generally speaking, the popes aren't stupid, and they know the kind of binds being infallible(and therefor inflexible) gets you into and so they are infallible fairly rarely.

Lord Steve on the other hand is infallible all the time and suffers the relevant consequences.

I have been forming this notion for a while and I think I'm concluding that Apple is a company that can only successfully cater to a limited type of personalities. These people have a very particular set of attributes. Some of them may include a lacking critical nature and more apt to see the positives than the negatives in any given situation. I don't want to use the word gullible as it implies too much as these same people are reasonably intelligent.

despite your intense personal feelings about all things Apple, the iPhone and iPad devices happen to best fit the workflows and needs of many users that have in fact also tried competitors' products? Why is it so hard for people to imagine that some people actually use their iPhones rather a lot?

Mine is the central data manager in my personal and work lives, I don't just wear it on a necklace like Flava Flav. Frankly it's a bit insulting to hear this kind of bullshit all the time. I'm not a member of any Apple club, I don't own a Mac or an iPad or an iPod or any other apple device. In fact, I'm a Linux user with Thinkpads. But I'm a Linux user with Thinkpads and an iPhone, and this immediately requires fifty percent of posters on this and other technology boards to speak to my critical thinking skills.

Perhaps confront your own before you shatter glass with flying debris.

The problem is most likely that your hand creates electrical contact with the steel or bridges the 2 antenna parts on the lower left. Either way you just coat the steel with plastic resin or something transparent/matte and the problem is solved. I'll be the factory has already done this on new models.

This jives with the experiences of my co-workers who've bought the phone. Overall impression of the iPhone 4 is that it looks and feels great, has an amazing screen, so-so battery life, but reception problems that drive every one of them bonkers.

It's enough to make me want to stick with my iPhone original release -- aluminum case and all -- just a little longer. From where I sit, unless you really want the forward-facing & higher-res camera and higher-resolution screen, stick with the 3GS. It does everything else pretty well. The main things I need from my phone are the same things I needed ten years ago:

After having Palm devices alongside a mobile phone for years and years to suit, and wading through several years of crap-tastic Windows Mobile phones, the iPhone original release fit the bill perfectly for me. The real compelling thing the 3GS has over the original for me is a real GPS so that I can geocache without using a dedicated GPS unit. And maybe the extra RAM so that I don't have to clear memory to start certain apps.

Nice to see Consumer Reports calling Apple on their crap this time. Just like when they blamed short battery life in the 3GS on over-usage and push settings... what a load of CYA corporate malarkey! They gotta get the lead out on this one, if the several people I know -- admittedly, all tech geeks so it's a very small sample size -- who own the phone are any indicator, they're really unhappy about this.

I got a used Verizon compatible Droid Incredible for about $300, and got a prepaid plan from Page Plus for $29 a month. It only comes with 50MB of data, but I'm usually under a WiFi umbrella. I still have used it when I needed directions or a phone number, and I think I've used 10MB in two weeks. (I got the idea from some blog, but can't find it for some reason.)

It hits everything on your list, costs less than just the data plan for AT&T (1200 min/1200 texts), and the coverage is great. Much faster than my iPhone 3G in general (e-mail, web, etc), though the intelligence of the touch keyboard was better on the iPhone. I do miss the ease of direct downloading podcasts, but I haven't really looked for a replacement yet.

Plus, it sends and receives phone calls like a champ. Which is, you know, a good feature for a phone to have.

It is Never a good idea to buy anything new. The only reason to do it is to placate emotion. This applies to Furniture, cars, and for god's sake yes, electronics.

The iPhone 4 is awesome and I will likely have one someday. But problems like these, founded or not, are the kind of thing you sign up for if you want to be an early adopter. That, and spending way too much money.

this is only a temporary problem. I'm sure apple will address the problem as soon as it's engineers have troubleshot the problem thouroghly. For myself in particular, I have not seen this issue and I'm laeft handed. In fact I'm composing this email on my iphone4 at the mom... +++ No Carrier

I've been using cell phones heavily since the bricks of the early 90's. We used to have exposed antennas. Then retracted antennas that we could extend. Then the manufacturers decided phones would look cooler (and in some cases be cheaper) if the antennas were internal. I definitely noticed a decrease in signal quality when this move happened. As a heavy cell phone user, I also have always noticed that phones with internal antennas can have big changes in reception performance based on how you hold the phone. I've been re-learning the "optimal holding position" for every Nokia, Motorolla, and Samsung I've owned. It's just basic RF. Move your hands around your HDTV antenna and see how reception changes.

Apple did something really innovative by using a structural component of the case as an antenna. They went a step further by using that component for multiple antennas to allow for better reception and transmission of Wifi and GPS. So finally we have external antennas again, and ones that are much larger than other phone's internal antennas. The reception improvement in my experience is significant. I can walk around on a long call in areas where I would regularly get dropped calls due to AT&T's poor coverage; and not drop. Yes, I hold my iPhone 4 differently than my previous phone; but this is nothing new. When I talk to my friends and co-workers who also have an iPhone 4, they report the same. Every review I've seen has said the iPhone 4 has better reception than any iPhone before. My guess is that it has better reception than most other AT&T phones.

It's fun to have controversy to talk about, and I guess that's why everyone is spamming the internet with this issue. I'm certain the article on Consumers Reports is getting a lot of hits, and they are probably getting new subscribers. But why is this a huge deal? The whole thing just makes no sense to me. I think it's illogical to not buy a phone that takes such leaps forward in so many ways because of an issue that is a fact of life for every RF device ever made. The fact that so many of my fellow geeks are getting so revved up about this makes me wonder what they are thinking.

The fact that so many of my fellow geeks are getting so revved up about this makes me wonder what they are thinking.

It's actually pretty simple. The Slashdot geek wishes that the iPhone was made for him, and wants to like Apple. Even though they don't understand the effort expended towards polish, they still want it. And they want it for cheap. And they want it open sourced. And so on.

Problem is, Apple doesn't seem to care very much about this market, so the geeks are spurned. They're angry that Apple doesn't care, and they're angry that Apple is getting away with not caring. They don't see why Apple caters to the ignorant masses, when they could've done so much more if the iPhone was open and cheap and hackable. This is why despite Android and its supposed superiority, you still see so many people angry and irrational. This is why failures like KIN and whatever Nokia is doing get a chuckle or two, but the iPhone's negatives merit hundreds of posts a few times each week.

Apple is the hot girl who called you a creep. You know deep inside that she can be good and smart and understanding (but still incredibly hot), and it just kills you that she's dating an apparently normal guy... for money! Android is the girl you said you wanted after listing all the traits you said you cared about on a piece of paper, yet... somehow you're still complaining about Apple.

According to the video on Consumer Report's website touching the gap on the lower left side reduces the signal strength by around 20db. That's quite a big loss, the resulting signal strength being about 1/100 of the starting signal strength. [cpcstech.com]. When I grip the base of my Motorola Droid phone around the base (where the antenna is located internally), I can only get about a 2-3db drop in signal strength.

This huge loss does not surprise me, since touching the gap is essentially changing the characteristics of the antenna significantly. I can only wonder whose bright idea it was to use this design or how they failed to catch this during their testing phase? It doesn't take rocket science to fix the problem either, I suspect just a clear insulating coating over the metal band would do wonders.

Yes, I certainly do. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to test the antenna problem. But it does take an impartial organization, that has nothing to gain or lose from the report. Who would you prefer to believe, Apple?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to test the antenna problem. But it does take an impartial organization, that has nothing to gain or lose from the report.

Too often CR reviews of articles are superficial, and dismissive of dramatic improvements in technology products. They often seem to be rating complex technical items on the same scale as a can of beans or a drip coffee maker.

They have always been in Apple's corner on the vast majority of their reviews, approaching fanboy status.

Having said that, I give them kudos for going into the lab and testing this antenna problem. (Even Duct Tape was involves in the testing, without a rocket part in sight.)

The ONLY website I have ever paid to subscribe to is Consumer reports and it's worth every penny. Are their reviews perfect? By no means. But they are the most accurate and most unbiased product review organization there is. Find me something better or shut up. In my opinion they have saved me tens of thousands of dollars over the past 15 years.

I trust Consumer Reports when they are not missing the point (as often happens with cars), pulling things out their ass (as sometimes happens with cars), and are dealing with actual test data (which usually happens with everything).
This is the kind of specific test of a feature that actually matters that, combined with their reputation for impartiality, justifies the existence of Consumer Reports.

Dude, RTFA! They clearly state that the iPhone 4 excels in several areas. It just sucks in its primary function as a cellphone and thus they can't recommend it. I don't think Consumer Reports has any vested interest in seeing the iPhone fail or succeed.

But this isn't a "general" point, it's quite specific; can they test whether the iPhone has that antenna flaw, or not? The answer; yes, they can, they did, and the fucking phone has a major design flaw in it.

You can piss and moan about CR not having "the mental savvy" (this from a guy who says he doesn't take their technology "advise"), but Consumer Reports is right about this.

Cars are probably their primary claim to fame, but appliances and consumer electronics would likely be #2 and #3. The most newsworthy part of this is that an independent source that is beyond reproach (to the extent that such a thing is possible) has confirmed that this is a legitimate problem that shows up in normal use.

They do testing on pretty much everything. They are non-profit, and have a reputation for accurate reporting. They were the ones who made the world realize that air ionizers are essentially useless (like Ionic Breeze from sharper image).

Generally they break stuff into categories, and the 'recommend' 'do not recommend' is not particularly useful, since it might still be good in the categories you care about. But one thing you can be sure about, if they say a product is not good in a certain category, they have the research to back it up (and from time to time have defended the evidence in court).

And here we go with the Apple fanbois. Come on, pal. Everyone knows the iPhone 4 has a huge goddamned problem. Blaming the messengers is ludicrous. Apple screwed the pooch big time, and it's going to cost them money and reputation to fix it, so rather than dicking around bitching at consumer magazines and critics, Steve Jobs should be ordering the company to begin immediate recalls...

Unless of course, they don't have an easy fix. In which case Apple has a really big problem on their hands.

They don't need to do a recall yet. All iphone 4s are still within the 30 day return period and Apple is reportedly waiving the restocking fee. iPhone 4 users whose problems are such they cannot live with them can return their phone immediately. I also think they can't handle a recall right now, the iPhone 4 is sold out everywhere (it's insane, here in Belgium people are selling 16Gb iPhone 4s for EUR 1000 and up) and still people are ordering. Maybe they'll do a stealth fix and do a recall of the early models later when things cool down.

I don't think ANYBODY is claiming that it's not a fuckup. I don't think ANYBODY is claiming that Jobs' ridiculous emails weren't...well, ridiculous. Apple over the last year has caused some really interesting cognitive dissonance in people. Who knew that Slashdot had legions of people who viewed Flash as a killer feature and couldn't wait to get it on their iphones? In any case...

GP has a point--it's a fuckup with a really easy solution--buy a case. If you don't want to buy a case, return the phone. You get

maybe. People who know about tech naturally wouldn't need CR for an iPhone. These are also the people who know how to, uh, hold it right. Now, imagine someone who doesn't understand the nature of the problem. They'd go out, get a new iPhone, and hate it. CR is saving them from that experience, and that's better for everyone.

CR is one of the more objective reviewers out there. If I had to shop for something about which I knew nothing (a new dryer, for example)

CR is the foremost magazine of trusted reviews of consumer products for just about very genre under the sun.

You have to admit it's some indication of the fervor of Apple fandom when Consumer Report withholds a recommendation on an iPhone for a well-documented problem and the discussion ends up centering on a criticism of Consumer Reports.\

I'm surprised that we're not hearing that the iPhones connectivity problems are due to a flaw in the laws of Physics. Maybe Ohm's Law has an inherent anti-Apple bias or s

Oh, please, it's a painful fact that Apple has legions of... fanboys that defend anything Apple does. Apple has some nice (overpriced, but nice) products but some hipsters treat them like a technological godsend, especially (in my experience) the less technically inept people I know that are into gadgets. Apple fans are bought on marketing and come to identify with apple products the same way some people love Nike shoes (and yes, they exist too).

It helps when people set the tone correctly. By attacking people in the summary like this article and a lot of others do you're signaling to both sides this discussion isn't going to be civil. What would would happen if you posted a random Linux article and ended it with "... but as we all know Linux users are a bunch of basement dwelling nerds" you think ? Ridiculously skewed moderation (most often anti-Apple) in Apple threads doesn't help either.

ironically, CR still rates it HIGHER [allthingsd.com] than any other smart phone for the US market! actual report is behind a CR paywall, link goes to blog post that shows a screen shot of the report...

ironically, CR still rates it HIGHER [allthingsd.com] than any other smart phone for the US market!"

TFA [consumerreports.org] linked to in the summary (I know, nobody reads it) explains it better than that snarky blog post:

"The iPhone scored high, in part because it sports the sharpest display and best video camera we've seen on any phone, and even outshines its high-scoring predecessors with improved battery life and such new features as a front-facing camera for video chats and a built-in gyroscope that turns the phone into a super-responsive game controller. But Apple needs to come up with a permanent--and free--fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4." (emphasis added)

anyway, this is serious bug that we are not used to experience from Apple. Although advantage of Apple products is very discussable, quality or basic product usability was not. I wonder how they managed to screw up so badly. Some internal testing had to show that iPhone 4 signal reception isn't as good as previous version were. Did middle management slide it under carpet like how it is done everywhere?

We had a previous story here about how the strongest ATT coverage is right at the Apple campus. So, it worked nice there. The prototypes got used "out in the field" while in cases, so the antenna bridging problem never occurred.

Actually, a few years ago, I bought a Mac Mini which showed grave problems with BlueTooth and Wifi-reception. After digging around a little, that too was a hardware-problem, present in a lot of Mac Minis. Owners were never reimbursed, and (AFAIR) apple.com forum-threads removed.

Also, for that Mac, in OSX 10.4.6, Apple broke all support for FullHD-TV-monitors. Basically, the analysis claimed that for some unknown reason, Apple introduced a change in resolution-detection, filtering out 1920x1080p, if the monitor somehow identified itself as a televison-set. The bug were, to my knowledge, never solved, and owners recommended to buy 10.5 instead.

So, in my experience, Apple is at least as guilty of quality and usability-problems as anyone else, and well-known to not really reimburse customers when these things happen.

For the most part, those "open source projects" are self-serving and scarcely used by anybody else. The only project from Apple that has much use beyond Apple is WebKit, but they probably released that only because they were forced to by the license. You can see Jobs's attitude towards open source in the way he tried to weasel out of the GPL on gcc. And even to this day, Apple has not release an actually useful version of Objective-C.

If you weigh Apple's self-serving and useless contributions to open source against the harm they continue to do to open source, Linux, and programming freedom with their rhetoric, advertising, and outright lies, Apple is arguably a big net minus for open source.

And even to this day, Apple has not release an actually useful version of Objective-C.

I don't understand this statement. Apple's gcc team (e.g. snaroff et al) have supported integrating their Objective C implementation into the main line of gcc since the NeXT days -- almost 20 years. They worked with us at Cygnus to make this happen, including all the hassle to make ObjC++ work. Now they seem to be seriously investing in LLVM/CLang and why not?

Self-serving? Sure, most FOSS projects are, in the end. There are plenty of legit reasons to criticise Apple, but I would not consider their nature and level of support for FOSS (App store excepted) to be one of them.

Seriously, for an Open Source community it's outstanding how many Apple fanatics here are, when they are obviously the largest abuser of OSS or open technology.

Huh? Apple is the primary source of development behind WebKit, Clang, LLVM, launchd, C blocks, libdispatch, and the rest of Darwin. All of these things are open source, and most of them are being incorporated in other operating systems.

If people are "fanatics" for Apple, it's because they're constantly put on the defensive by Apple-haters like yourse

After they forked KHTML, and hired several of the core developers, sure.

Clang, LLVM

has made substantial inroads to FreeBSD, a good thing

launchd

OS X is all that uses this. A quick search of mailing lists shows that almost all of the major Linux distros and others had considered, and rejected it

C blocks

Just what is needed, a non-standard extension to C, C++ and Obj-C developed by Apple and used only by Apple

libdispatch

Used only in Snow Leopard, and a non-supported port to FreeBSD

and the rest of Darwin. All of these things are open source, and most of them are being incorporated in other operating systems.

What other OSes are incorporating Darwin?

Not to rain on your parade, but to listen to your example, you'd think these components were seeing widespread adoption, when in reality, one or two have some small adoption (the altogether not particularly popular OmniWeb and iCab browsers and Webkit), and some have some niche, unsupported ports to FreeBSD.

How this rates as 5 insightful and not outright troll just goes to show how bad Apple bashing has become on Slashdot lately. Tell me, exactly how do you justify your moral superiority by calling people you disagree with "fags"? Speaking of modpoint abuse.

CR has been wrong on so many things before when it comes to computers. Not to mention Apple knows there's a problem and they are trying to fix the issue. Like they have said get a case looks nicer then duck tape and protects the phone better. If you spent that much money on an Iphone you should have the few extra dollars buy the case. At least until Apple fixes the issue.

I'd actually agree with you here a bit, but: This is not the only problem. The proximity sensor on the 4 seems to work only randomly, with many people reporting dialing numbers or enabling the speakerphone with their ears while talking. No reaction from Apple. Nobody knows if this a hardware problem (they have put the sensor in a different place compared to the 3GS) or a calibration problem and if it is, if it can be corrected with a software update.

And then there is the fact that the fully exposed glass edges on both front and back are extremely fragile if they hit the ground when you drop the thing. The glass itself is tough, no doubt. The edges aren't, if they have to absorb the full impact the thing *will* shatter. Even without the antenna problem this means that this thing is actually very much unusable without a case. Drop it once or hit with it against a desk lamp or whatever when picking it up in a hurry and you don't have a nice mark in the bezel as with the 3GS, you have a shattered display or back cover.

Add to that the fact that you have no idea which side is front and which is back without looking at the thing and it gets more and more silly. Really, you feel so stupid when you pull the thing out of your pocket or out of a bag and have no idea which side the screen is on before you look at it.

Basically it's a really pretty but incredibly stupid design. It's something to lay on a soft cushion and to look at, not something to carry with you all day long and to actually use.

Yeah, I know, for some geeks this is all what Apple is about anyway. I don't think so, Apple has some really nice and usable hardware. But this design is overstretching it in plain sight.

Provided they get the sensor problem fixed, you can wrap a silly case around it and it's still a (then dull looking) great smartphone. The whole design is still a glaring mistake, though. Even more since it clearly says "Yes, all the Apple haters are right, we are just putting out beautiful but useless hardware to catch the money of clueless idiots".

No, until now I tended to hate Apple, but loved many of the products they sold. Now with that iPhone (and the stupidly expensive new Mac mini with its machined alu case and the iPad with only 256MB of RAM and no camera) there's not much left to love. They may manage to get it straight again with the next product cycle but until then they're dropping good will of their customers left and right every single day.